► Play Len's Island: store.steampowered.com/app/1335830/Lens_Island/ ► Get 50% off Full Time Game Dev for New Year's: fulltimegamedev.mykajabi.com/ftgd ► Learn how I went full time indie, and how perhaps you can too: www.fulltimegamedev.com/opt-in-how-to-make-six-figures
Hey guys! Awesome to be the first to post for once. 😅 Thanks Thomas for all your super interesting videos and for you keeping on doing it. It would actually be interesting to have a chat with you about the pros and cons on having a publisher, which we’ve had for about 2 years now for our game, which is slowly but surely getting closer to finished. It’s a lot of fun with a ”big” budget, but it’s a lot of stress too. Well, catch you later! :)
Yeah I was thinking this same thing. He made a ton but was spending 100k per month or so. Which is very true. I worked on a game that made 800K plus and it was the same thing. We had to let go other devs, because we were burning money faster than the money the game would make.
Thank you for sharing and guiding me on the path forward. I am a cheerful and optimistic game developer. My goal is to be an independent game developer for life.
if you somehow see this, i'd like to ask if you know how actually difficult it is to make an indie game for mostly free? I'm only 15 so i don't wanna use my parents money, and the only paid software i have is music Software. Is it even possible to make a good game with otherwise free software?
It’s actually a bit possible to make great games for free. The top two game, Unity and Unreal, are actually free and only have to pay if you go above a certain percentage in sales. If you need to make materials, you can make it in Blender, which is also free. There are tons of resources you can get for free. The only thing is that it does take patience and hard work. Learn the engine first and make a couple of practice games. Start off small and worry about mechanics in your game first. Join a game jam if want more practice. I’m on this same journey as you. So I do wish you luck.
I would argue that it's easier to make games at 15 with no kids and limited funding than it is at 30 with kids and significant funding. But the thing is it's difficult at 15 for totally different reasons. Having a mentor or someone to ask questions when you need them would give you a massive advantage over everyone around you. If you started now and took 10 years purely developing the skills I wouldn't be surprised if you had a lucrative career by the time you were 25... definitely by the time you turn 30. In short... a professional using free tools would make something better than a beginner using top of the line equipment. Just put in the reps with whatever you can. You got this.
It all depends on how willing you are to learn skills and invest time honestly. I have spent 0 money on my game yet because I use Unreal and Blender, so no (upfront) costs here but modelling everything by yourself, doing all the special effects, sound effects and even composing your own music takes a lot of time and effort but will ultimately make the best possible product imo. Money is just a way to compensate for time and skill
@Shikigami6 I like that. Money compensates for time and/or skill. Really concise. Kinda reminds me of "Quality, Cost, Time. Pick two." Quality and low cost: gonna take a long time. Quality and Quick: gonna cost money. Quick and Cheap: Quality will suffer. I use that whenever someone complains about my prices.
One of the top 3 game engines is free (Godot) and there are other smaller free ones, one of the best 3D software is free (Blender), one of the top 3 painting/image editing software is free (Krita), the best pixel art software is $20 or free if you compile it yourself (Aseprite), the best code editors are all free, only music software is costly, but the best daw is the cheapest one at $60 (Reaper). Audio plugins are generally expensive, but there are free ones. But making successful games is hard as fuk. There you go.
Interesting story. In my opinion, the main thing that indie developers should start using is AI to generate everything that is possible. And then refine it if necessary and if the project is successful.
ya please not. The thing that makes indie games playable is the artisitc vision and craftmanship of individuals. If I want soulless, AI/automatically generated assets I could als just play EA-games. I prefer a shitty made asset with "soul" and a consistant artstyle over any AI generated asset. Maybe use AI for simple textures in the background but not your the "core" of your art.
@@MichaelCook_Old_School_IT"i had a yt channel with a cuppe 100k subs. That got me like a low range salary so roughly 40k (AUD) a year" (on top of whatever salary he got from his day job) which was then enough for him to quit his job.
► Play Len's Island: store.steampowered.com/app/1335830/Lens_Island/
► Get 50% off Full Time Game Dev for New Year's: fulltimegamedev.mykajabi.com/ftgd
► Learn how I went full time indie, and how perhaps you can too: www.fulltimegamedev.com/opt-in-how-to-make-six-figures
He believed that his game WOULD succeed, put everything he had into it and won. He bet on himself and his team and it paid off. Well done sir 👍
Hey guys! Awesome to be the first to post for once. 😅 Thanks Thomas for all your super interesting videos and for you keeping on doing it. It would actually be interesting to have a chat with you about the pros and cons on having a publisher, which we’ve had for about 2 years now for our game, which is slowly but surely getting closer to finished. It’s a lot of fun with a ”big” budget, but it’s a lot of stress too. Well, catch you later! :)
Do you send all your guests purple lights for the show?
Is there a full length episode? Also side note: crazy that even with his ‘success’ it’s still not even to buy a house 😳
Yeah I was thinking this same thing. He made a ton but was spending 100k per month or so. Which is very true. I worked on a game that made 800K plus and it was the same thing. We had to let go other devs, because we were burning money faster than the money the game would make.
please post these conversations to podcast platforms like apple podcasts and spotify!
Well... I suppose it is rather easy to succeed when you already have "couple of hundreds of thousands of subs", to start...
Thank you for sharing and guiding me on the path forward. I am a cheerful and optimistic game developer. My goal is to be an independent game developer for life.
Do you have the full interview (if it was longer)?
Was that interview really recipe for : "How To Make Indie Games Full Time (Before Finishing Your Game)"?
Watching this from Cameroon, Africa like... Kickstarter?😭
if you somehow see this, i'd like to ask if you know how actually difficult it is to make an indie game for mostly free? I'm only 15 so i don't wanna use my parents money, and the only paid software i have is music Software. Is it even possible to make a good game with otherwise free software?
It’s actually a bit possible to make great games for free. The top two game, Unity and Unreal, are actually free and only have to pay if you go above a certain percentage in sales. If you need to make materials, you can make it in Blender, which is also free. There are tons of resources you can get for free. The only thing is that it does take patience and hard work. Learn the engine first and make a couple of practice games. Start off small and worry about mechanics in your game first. Join a game jam if want more practice. I’m on this same journey as you. So I do wish you luck.
I would argue that it's easier to make games at 15 with no kids and limited funding than it is at 30 with kids and significant funding. But the thing is it's difficult at 15 for totally different reasons.
Having a mentor or someone to ask questions when you need them would give you a massive advantage over everyone around you. If you started now and took 10 years purely developing the skills I wouldn't be surprised if you had a lucrative career by the time you were 25... definitely by the time you turn 30.
In short... a professional using free tools would make something better than a beginner using top of the line equipment.
Just put in the reps with whatever you can. You got this.
It all depends on how willing you are to learn skills and invest time honestly. I have spent 0 money on my game yet because I use Unreal and Blender, so no (upfront) costs here but modelling everything by yourself, doing all the special effects, sound effects and even composing your own music takes a lot of time and effort but will ultimately make the best possible product imo. Money is just a way to compensate for time and skill
@Shikigami6 I like that. Money compensates for time and/or skill. Really concise. Kinda reminds me of "Quality, Cost, Time. Pick two."
Quality and low cost: gonna take a long time.
Quality and Quick: gonna cost money.
Quick and Cheap: Quality will suffer.
I use that whenever someone complains about my prices.
One of the top 3 game engines is free (Godot) and there are other smaller free ones, one of the best 3D software is free (Blender), one of the top 3 painting/image editing software is free (Krita), the best pixel art software is $20 or free if you compile it yourself (Aseprite), the best code editors are all free, only music software is costly, but the best daw is the cheapest one at $60 (Reaper). Audio plugins are generally expensive, but there are free ones.
But making successful games is hard as fuk.
There you go.
You should check out frog vibes he a game developer on RUclips and he made the platform here comes Nico
Any Indian Development
Then comment
Interesting story. In my opinion, the main thing that indie developers should start using is AI to generate everything that is possible. And then refine it if necessary and if the project is successful.
And perhaps run a RUclips channel from the very beginning of development. Although this can be a big distraction from the main goal.
But the most important thing is to study storytelling and hooks.
ya please not. The thing that makes indie games playable is the artisitc vision and craftmanship of individuals. If I want soulless, AI/automatically generated assets I could als just play EA-games. I prefer a shitty made asset with "soul" and a consistant artstyle over any AI generated asset. Maybe use AI for simple textures in the background but not your the "core" of your art.
@@Shikigami6 What I meant is you can't spend months just on graphic assets. You have to make the prototype first.
@@MichaelCook_Old_School_IT"i had a yt channel with a cuppe 100k subs. That got me like a low range salary so roughly 40k (AUD) a year" (on top of whatever salary he got from his day job) which was then enough for him to quit his job.